College Football at its Best - Oklahoma Sooner Football

The Oklahoma Sooners are the third football power that I am featuring in the series "College Football at its Best".....Matt Hofeld of the blog Crimson and Cream took some time to respond to my questions about Sooner football....he is 33-years-old amd attended his first OU football game in 1983 as a kid and has been hooked since....he launched his first sports blog, My Opinion on Sports, in April of 2005 and became a part of SBN in August of 2006 with the launch of the Crimson and Cream Machine.....I want to thank Matt for his time - it is much appreciated....

Crimson and Cream

Q1. First question - Barry Switzer or Bob Stoops?
A. Wow! What a question to start out with. Let me first say how fortunate the University of Oklahoma is to have the heritage of football coaches they do. Not just Barry and Bob but also put Bud Wilkinson as well. As for the question itself, as difficult as it is I would have to go with Switzer at this point with no shame or disgrace what so ever to Bob Stoops who has been nothing but fantastic since arriving in Norman. In his 16 years at Oklahoma Switzer won 3 national championships (1974,1975,1985) and 12 conference championships including consecutively from 1973 – 1980. Switzer also owned Nebraska and Texas. Some will argue that the trouble the team got into under Switzer’s watch would automatically place him under Stoops but I argue that it was a different era in college football and that kind of stuff was going on at campuses across the nation. Sure, we’re not proud of it and it probably was time for a change when Switzer stepped down after the 1988 season but that activity wasn’t exclusive to the Oklahoma campus. While Bob Stoops is certainly on his way by winning 4 conference championships and 1 national title in his first 8 seasons at OU he still has a way to go to catch the King.

Q2. What is the greatest Oklahoma football game that you have seen - whether it be in-person or on television? Explain the game and why it was so great.
A. I really had to think hard about this one because I’ve been to a lot of fun games but that doesn’t necessarily mean the best game. I was at all the slaughter games of the Stoops era, when OU beat Texas 63-14, 65-13, Texas A&M 77-0, and Oklahoma State 52-9. While those games were a lot of fun they really weren’t great games. A great game also doesn’t necessarily mean that the Sooners win. For example, the Fiesta Bowl in January was a great game. In spite of the fact that the Sooners were upset, it was still a fantastic game and by far the greatest of the 06 football season.

I guess I would have to say that for me the greatest game I have ever witnessed was the Orange Bowl following the miracle 2000 season. OU beat Florida State 13-2 to claim their 7th national championship. Despite being undefeated going into the game the Sooners were still underdogs and no one thought that they had a chance to win including the radio broadcast crew for the Sooners. Not only did they win, they dominated Florida State that night. The 1985 Orange Bowl is close as well because it is the first time I actually saw OU win a national championship but the Sooners were so much better than Penn State that year that there really wasn’t any drama and the game wasn’t close.

Q3. Who do you consider Oklahoma's biggest rival - Texas, Oklahoma State or Nebraska?
A. This one is easy. Hands down it’s Texas followed by Nebraska and then Oklahoma State is a distant third. The winner of the OU/Texas game generally goes on to play for the Big 12 Championship, unless Texas just gives it up like they did last season, and in the old days of the Big 8 it was usually OU or Nebraska who won the conference. While the Cowboys are our instate rival they really aren’t a threat for winning the conference and recruits don’t sway between OU and OSU like they do with OU and Texas.

Q4. Since 1970, who are the five greatest players to wear an Oklahoma uniform and why?
A. I don’t want to totally balk at this question but we are running a feature in our countdown to kick-off that will highlight, in our opinion, the ten players who have had the most impact on the Sooner football program since the 1975 national championship. I’ll throw you a bone though. Here are a few of the candidates; Tinker Owens, Lee Roy Selmon (photo left), Joe Washington, Billy Sims (photo, lower right), Tony Casillas, Brian Bosworth, Keith Jackson, Danté Jones, Cedric Jones, Josh Heupel, Rocky Calmus, Roy Williams, Tommie Harris, Mark Clayton, Jason White, Adrian Peterson.

Q5. Make your case why Oklahoma football, as a whole, is the best football program in the country?
A. There aren’t a lot of teams who can boast the winning tradition that Oklahoma has. The Sooners have won seven national championships and forty conference championships. Under Bob Stoops Oklahoma is winning a conference championship every other year and playing for a national championship about once every three years. What kind of kid wouldn’t want to play for a program like that?...

On Monday, the Georgia Bulldogs will be the next football program featured...